Microcosmos

Ever since I was little I have been fascinated by the idea of other life-forms.  I was always reading about conspiracy theories about life on other planets, UFOs, information about foreign species that was being hidden from the public by the government.  Along with this came a fascination with the lives of those who were not able to verbalize their experiences.  I was always wondering what was going on that was unseen by the eye or unheard by the ear.  Did my dog communicate with the neighborhood canines when she barked?  What was the day in the life of the pigeon on the sidewalk of Broadway and 92nd Street?

What I loved about the Microcosmos video was two-fold.  The most obvious attraction to the video was aesthetic.  The vivid colors and textures that the camera was able to capture was so intensely interesting to look at that I felt I could pause the video at any given point and stare at a still for hours, and still not really see every detail.  It was beautifully edited, even down to the sometimes humorous background music that helped tell the stories of these strange and beautiful creatures.  

But what caught my attention that drew me back to my childhood fantasies of other "things'" lives, was the fact that the technology used to shoot the video literally showed a world that was never able to be seen before.  All of these creatures existed before the camera did.  Their everyday activities, like carrying food, reproducing, socializing -- all of this went on without humans knowing, without humans seeing.   The video showed what could be interpreted as their emotions, their eyes, we could see the way they interact with other insects and with their surroundings. This technology has allowed us to view an entire other world--the world of the minute insects, that have always, at least in my mind, been looked at as completely un-human-like.